I have been reading Annie Dillard’s book, The Writing Life, again this week. It was published way back in the dark ages of 1989. That was right around when I re-opened the writing Pandora’s box in my own life and put pen back to paper, fingers to QWERTY keyboard again. Not long after, I headed to graduate school part-time, feeling for the first time in forever that I’d been reunited with my creative tribe. Sing hosannas—wait, not so fast….
Being a person too often inclined to the melancholy and darker side of life, I was struck by this comment by Barbara LaMorticella on Dojo Poetry Editor Kirsten Rian’s recent blog post about happiness: “In flamenco music, in Spanish poetry, there is a hard to define quality called ‘duende,’ which is a grief so deep it…
Present economic conditions have been serving up a familiar and unsettling feeling of déjà vu of late. Some days, it feels as if we are back in the late 1930s only with 24/7 media, social networking, iPhones, and twittering thrown in just to make us wonder if it’s really “Back to the Future” instead…
Characterization is the lifeblood of fiction for many readers—and writers, too. Oh, I’m seduced by the twists and turns of plot as much as the next person. But time and again, what I’m most drawn to when reading is the effect that events have on the story’s characters…
And truth, too: There is no need to run outside for better seeing, Rather abide at the center of your being; For the more you …
Sometimes it is by going back (often thanks to new translations) to study a timeless and ancient text that I find the most timely and relevant wisdom about the writing craft. During a recent bookshelf purge, I unearthed not one but two copies of Lu Chi’s Wen Fu (The Art of Writing). One is a slim brown…
I confess: I’ve never read any fiction by Stephen King. I’ve seen at least one of his stories that was made into a movie—“Stand By Me”—and parts of “Carrie” way back when—I’m remembering the high school prom night scene in particular and Sissy Spacek not having the best of times….
There are so many avenues to what one can easily call “failure” in this so-called writing life. A while back, I rearranged many aspects of my life so I could more easily prostrate myself on the altar of the written word, figuring that was a surefire way to get the work done…
I’m a shameless devotee of everything Oscar [1] in the short month or so between when nominations are announced and the little gold men are handed out at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. I try to see most of the nominated movies…
Long before the American economy went into its current version of freefall, I’d taken to wondering how you could realistically run a country on…shopping. That sounds nuts and like over-simplification at best but this has become the opinion of many smart, in-the-know, best-and-the-brightest as to what has gotten…
